Pakistani Taliban Claim Responsibility for Karachi Military Killings

Military soldiers collect evidence from an army vehicle after two army personnel were killed by attackers on a motorcycle in Karachi, Pakistan, July 26, 2016. REUTERS/Akhtar Soomro

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, July 27 – A Pakistani Taliban faction has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s killing of two military officers in the southern city of Karachi, a spokesman for the Islamist group said.

The killings were the latest attacks in the busy port city of 20 million people, where paramilitary forces have been cracking down on Islamist militants and criminal gangs for almost three years.

The officers were killed as they were on the Pakistani Taliban faction’s “target list”, Ehsan Ullah Ehsan, the spokesman for the group, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, said late on Tuesday.

Gunmen attacked the vehicle carrying the soldiers, who belonged to an intelligence agency, while they were patrolling a crowded area of the city, police had said.

The crackdown has boosted security in Karachi, although in recent months, a popular Sufi musician, Amjad Sabri, was shot dead and the son of the provincial chief justice was kidnapped, but later rescued.